In an age where academic degrees may be literally printed from home, some experts are calling for the development of minimum requirements to accredit academic programs in the occupational safety and health (OSH) profession. 

Non-white patients are at twice the risk of dying within 30 days of a carotid endarterectomy, a common surgical procedure performed to reduce the risk of stroke, according to a new study led by researchers from the Penn State College of Medicine. The study highlights persistent differences in medical outcomes based on race, despite advances in research, education and clinical practice.

Corriveau, L; Potter, E G. Canada's northern Shield: new perspectives from the Geoscience for Energy and Minerals Program; Geological Survey of Canada, Bulletin 612, 2024 p. 55-98, https://doi.org/10.4095/332495
<a href="https://geoscan.nrcan.gc.ca/images/geoscan/gid_332495.jpg"><img src="https://geoscan.nrcan.gc.ca/images/geoscan/gid_332495.jpg" title="Canada's northern Shield: new perspectives from the Geoscience for Energy and Minerals Program; Geological Survey of Canada, Bulletin 612, 2024 p. 55-98, https://doi.org/10.4095/332495" height="150" border="1" /></a>

Aim/Purpose: This paper presents a machine learning approach for analyzing Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs). The aim of this study is to find a model that can check whether a CLO is well written or not. Background: The use of machine learning algorithms has been, since many years, a prominent solution to predict learner performance in Outcome Based Education. However, the CLOs definition is still presenting a big handicap for faculties. There is a lack of supported tools and models that permit to predict whether a CLO is well written or not. Consequently, educators need an expert in quality and education to validate the outcomes of their courses. Methodology: A novel method named CLOCML (Course Learning Outcome Classification using Machine Learning) is proposed in this paper to develop predictive models for CLOs paraphrasing. A new dataset entitled CLOC (Course Learning Outcomes Classes) for that purpose has been collected and then undergone a pre-processing phase. We compared the performance of 4 models for predicting a CLO classification. Those models are Support Vector Machine (SVM), Random Forest, Naive Bayes and XGBoost. Contribution: The application of CLOCML may help faculties to make well-defined CLOs and then correct CLOs' measures in order to improve the quality of education addressed to their students. Findings: The best classification model was SVM. It was able to detect the CLO class with an accuracy of 83%. Recommendations for Practitioners: We would recommend both faculties’ members and quality reviewers to make an informed decision about the nature of a given course outcome. Recommendation for Researchers: We would highly endorse that the researchers apply more machine learning models for CLOs of various disciplines and compare between them. We would also recommend that future studies investigate on the importance of the definition of CLOs and its impact on the credibility of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) values during accreditation process. Impact on Society: The findings of this study confirm the results of several other researchers who use machine learning in outcome-based education. The definition of right CLOs will help the student to get an idea about the performances that will be measured at the end of a course. Moreover, each faculty can take appropriate actions and suggest suitable recommendations after right performance measures in order to improve the quality of his course. Future Research: Future research can be improved by using a larger dataset. It could also be improved with deep learning models to reach more accurate results. Indeed, a strategy for checking CLOs overlaps could be integrated.

The study involved student teachers enrolled in early childhood teaching at a teacher training institute in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Seventy-four students participated in flipped classroom activities during their first semester of study. Students were told to learn from online videos related to using image editing software in their own time and pace prior to the next class. When they met in class, they were asked to apply their recently acquired editing knowledge to edit an image of their own choice related to the theme of their group project. At the end of the activity, students were asked to complete an online questionnaire. It was found that students had rated all five questions relating to generic skills highly, with self-study skills rated the highest. They particularly enjoyed the flexibility of learning on their own time and pace as a benefit of the flipped classroom. Data collected from students’ project pages show they had used average of 3.22 editing features for the theme images for their project. Most groups had inserted text followed by using the filter function. It is possible that these two functions are more noticeable than other editing functions. In conclusion, students were able to apply their self-learnt knowledge in a real-life situation and they had also developed their generic skills via the flipped classroom pedagogy.

In this paper, two hypothetical frameworks are proposed through the application of quality function deployment (QFD) to integrate the current institutional level and program level student learning focus areas with the relevant institutional and program specific stakeholder expectations. A generic skillset proficiency expected of all the graduating students at the institutional level by the stakeholders is considered in the first QFD application example and a program specific knowledge proficiency expected at the program level by the stakeholders is considered in the second QFD application example. Operations management major/option is considered for illustration purposes at the program level. In addition, an assurance of learning based approach rooted in continuous improvement philosophy is proposed to align the stakeholder expectations with the relevant student learning outcomes at different learning tiers.

Aim/Purpose Information Technology students’ learning outcomes improve when teaching methodology moves away from didactic behaviorist-based pedagogy toward a more heuristic constructivist-based version of andragogy. Background There is a distinctive difference, a notable gap, between the academic community and the business community in their views of the level of preparedness of recent information technology program graduates. Understanding how Information Technology curriculum is developed and taught along with the underpinning learning theory is needed to address the deficient attainment of learning outcomes at the heart of this matter. Methodology The case study research methodology has been selected to conduct the inquiry into this phenomenon. This empirical inquiry facilitates exploration of a contemporary phenomenon in depth within its real-life context using a variety of data sources. The subject of analysis will be two Information Technology classes composed of a combination of second year and third year students; both classes have six students, the same six students. Contribution It is the purpose of this research to show that the use of improved approaches to learning will produce more desirable learning outcomes. Findings The results of this inquiry clearly show that the use of the traditional behaviorist based pedagogic model to achieve college and university IT program learning outcomes is not as effective as a more constructivist based andragogic model. Recommendations Instruction based purely on either of these does a disservice to the typical college and university level learner. The correct approach lies somewhere in between them; the most successful outcome attainment would be the product of incorporating the best of both. Impact on Society Instructional strategies produce learning outcomes; learning outcomes demonstrate what knowledge has been acquired. Acquired knowledge is used by students as they pursue professional careers and other ventures in life. Future Research Learning and teaching approaches are not “one-size-fits-all” propositions; different strategies are appropriate for different circumstances and situations. Additional research should seek to introduce vehicles that will move learners away from one the traditional methodology that has been used throughout much of their educational careers to an approach that is better suited to equip them with the skills necessary to meet the challenges awaiting them in the professional world.

Social exchange theory is a broad theory that has been used to explain trust as an outcome of various exchange relationships, and research commonly presumes trust exists between exchange partners that have prior relationships. In this paper, we contribute to social exchange theory by isolating the trust outcomes of interorganizational exchanges from other outcomes emphasized by learning and knowledge-based perspectives, and by specifying important boundary conditions for the emergence of trust in interorganizational exchanges. We make such a theoretical contribution within the domain of strategic alliances by investigating the effects of previous alliance agreements, or prior ties, between the partnering firms. We find that prior ties generally lead to learning about a partner's anticipated behavioral patterns, which helps a firm predict when self-interested behavior may occur and know how to interact with the partner during the coordination and execution of the alliance tasks. By contrast, it is evident that the kind of trust emphasized in social exchange theory is not generally rooted in prior ties and only emerges from prior relationships under certain conditions. We discuss the implications of these findings for research on social exchange theory and for delineating the theory's domain of applicability.

The GEO XIII Plenary in St. Petersburg  enjoyed a huge interest and support from many member governments, agencies and networks with around 400 registered participants this year.

Having taken place from 7-10 November 2016, the event featured a plenary, a number of side events and exhibition to give a chance to participants to meet up and discuss ideas and progress.

  
Left: The EU BON booth at the GEO exhibition - F. Wetzel, Ch. Häuser, H. Saarenmaa; Right: Director General  J.E. Smits and Christoph Häuser; Credits: F. Wetzel

This week Zorba and Karl discuss a new replacement proposed for BMI, and they talk about the effectiveness of statins for older people. Plus, they share a healthy recipe for […]

Cambridge, MA — Beginning physical therapy days, rather than weeks, after suffering a low back injury is associated with better outcomes, according to the results of a recent study from the Workers Compensation Research Institute.

Iowa City, IA — Organizations seeking better safety results should adopt a more precise accounting system, a group of international researchers suggests.

Children's Geographies; 06/01/2022
(AN 156867996); ISSN: 14733285
Academic Search Premier

Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association, Ahead of Print. Background:Using long-acting injectable (LAI) antipsychotic medications can improve the outcomes of patients with schizophrenia, such as reducing symptom severity and hospitalization risk. However, the outcomes of switching from oral to LAI antipsychotic medications are unclear.Aims:The purpose of this review is to provide a summary of […]

The post Clinical, Quality of Life, and Health Care Utilization Outcomes of Switching the Administration Route of Antipsychotic Medications Among People With Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis was curated by information for practice.

Nordic Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, Ahead of Print. Aims: Opioid addiction is a common problem among prisoners. The aim of this study was to examine differences between people who are incarcerated receiving opioid substitution treatment (OST) and those not receiving OST on addiction-related outcome variables during incarceration and after release from prison. Variables covered […]

The post Opioid substitution treatment, relapse and addiction-related outcomes in prison setting and after release: A longitudinal study was curated by information for practice.

Reintegration and adjustment to civilian life after military service is crucial for veterans’ mental and physical health. However, there is a lack of evidence-based interventions in Australia that specifically… Read the full article ›

The post Feasibility, acceptability, and initial outcomes of a psychological adjustment and reintegration program for transitioned military veterans was curated by information for practice.

The fixed effects model is a useful alternative to the mixed effects model for analyzing stepped-wedge cluster randomized trials (SW-CRTs). It controls for all time-invariant cluster-level confounders and has … Read the full article ›

The post Inclusion of unexposed clusters improves the precision of fixed effects analysis of stepped-wedge cluster randomized trials with binary and count outcomes was curated by information for practice.

The post Care Inspectorate: Help us improve our equality outcomes was curated by information for practice.

The post CfP: Artificial Intelligence in Health Economics and Outcomes Research was curated by information for practice.

The widespread adoption of cryoEM technologies for structural biology has pushed the discipline to new frontiers. A significant worldwide effort has refined the single-particle analysis (SPA) workflow into a reasonably standardized procedure. Significant investments of development time have been made, particularly in sample preparation, microscope data-collection efficiency, pipeline analyses and data archiving. The widespread adoption of specific commercial microscopes, software for controlling them and best practices developed at facilities worldwide has also begun to establish a degree of standardization to data structures coming from the SPA workflow. There is opportunity to capitalize on this moment in the maturation of the field, to capture metadata from SPA experiments and correlate the metadata with experimental outcomes, which is presented here in a set of programs called EMinsight. This tool aims to prototype the framework and types of analyses that could lead to new insights into optimal microscope configurations as well as to define methods for metadata capture to assist with the archiving of cryoEM SPA data. It is also envisaged that this tool will be useful to microscope operators and facilities looking to rapidly generate reports on SPA data-collection and screening sessions.

Investigation of the analyte soaking conditions on the crystalline sponge {[(ZnI2)3(tpt)2·x(solvent)]n} method using a statistical design of experiments model has provided fundamental insights into the influence of experimental variables. This approach focuses on a single analyte tested via 60 experiments (20 unique conditions) to identify the main effects for success and overall guest structure quality. This is employed as a basis for the development of a novel molecular structure grading system that enables the quantification of guest exchange quality.

The Institute of Medicine today presented the Gustav O. Lienhard Award to Linda Aiken, Claire M. Fagin Leadership Professor of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, for her rigorous research demonstrating the importance of nursing care and work environments in achieving safe, effective, patient-centered, and affordable health care.

Nearly half of the nation’s spending on health care is driven by 5 percent of patients, and improving health outcomes and curbing spending in health care will require identifying who these high-needs patients are and providing coordinated services through successful care models that link medical, behavioral, and community resources, says a new National Academy of Medicine special publication.

The Gulf Research Program (GRP) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine today announced grant awards for seven new projects totaling $5.3 million.

A shift is needed in how science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects are taught to students in grades K-12 who are learning English, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

A centralized, consistently reported system of indicators of educational equity is needed to bring attention to disparities in the U.S. education system, says a new report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Whether a patient has a safe place to live or healthy food to eat has an important influence on their health, but such nonmedical social needs have not traditionally been addressed in routine health care visits.

A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine provides a blueprint and eight overarching strategies for improving health care for the approximately 100,000 people in the United States living with sickle cell disease (SCD).

The Gulf Research Program (GRP) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine today announced grant awards for 13 new projects totaling $3.7 million.

By diligently delineating well-structured goals and objectives for the upcoming year, you can guide your enterprise toward a path of unmatched growth and prosperity.

Adopting a more personalized design approach to cleaning equipment will help facility maintenance teams build operational resilience, deliver better and safer cleaning outcomes and protect employees.

Twenty-five years ago, as a young safety professional, I struggled to find a set of leadership practices I could call my own. In 1996, I wrote about many of the leadership practices I was already using but found more clearly established in Servant Leadership (Sarkus, 1996).

PlainTalkPractice.com provides healthcare practitioners a better way to communicate complex Asian and allied medical terminology to naïve listeners.

Boulder retained 94% of participants in long-term care with buprenorphine, over 3 times the national average: demonstrating the remarkable effectiveness of its telehealth-only care model for opioid addiction.

HOCl effective in reducing recurrent capsular contracture in secondary cases over a 5 year follow up period.

Prof. Gian Paolo Ussia of the Campus Bio-Medico University Rome to present successful 9-month outcomes data at the 2024 New York Valves – The Structural Heart Summit conference

Annual Conference Will Bring Together Practitioners from Across Education Ecosystem and Highlight Exemplars in Philadelphia School District

Artificial intelligence technology has been advancing, and businesses have been putting it into action. But too many companies are just gathering a bunch of data to kick out insights and not really using AI to its fullest potential. Joshua Gans, professor at Rotman School of Management, says businesses need to apply AI more systemically. Because decision-making based on AI usually has ripple effects throughout the organization. Gans cowrote the HBR article “From Prediction to Transformation" and the new book "Power and Prediction: The Disruptive Economics of Artificial Intelligence."

Cystic fibrosis patient care has advanced greatly in recent years and the mortality rate has improved.